WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Horror Express 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.280 Hey, Welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.959 Lamb and today's episode is from our vault. It is 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.320 one from last year, and it ties in nicely with 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.440 the other Fall Break reruns that we ran this week. 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.720 This is going to be our discussion of the nineteen 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.560 seventy two super weird sci fi thriller Horror Express. This 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.640 one has Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and it all 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:29.680 takes place on a train, so it's a perfect fit. 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:30.920 Let's jump right in. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:41.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.080 All Right, all aboard, Welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:49.240 is Rob Lamb. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:53.400 And this is Joe McCormick. And actually I was just thinking, Rob, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:58.080 is this technically our first Weird House Cinema episode of 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.720 the Halloween season? Or are you count Absurd the movie 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.319 we did last week even though it wasn't October yet. 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.080 I'm going to go ahead and count Absurd. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.480 Yeah, Okay, you were jumping the gun a bit, but 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:09.640 that's okay. 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.319 If Load's and Home Depot can do it, then so 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:13.560 can so can we. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.039 If I told you about how my daughter has been 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:19.679 getting Halloween brained. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:22.679 You've told me a little bit about this. I've seen 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.440 some some curious illustrations from your house as well. 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.720 Oh yeah, Rachel may have showed you. Okay, So my 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.600 daughter is almost two years old, and I didn't do 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:34.880 this on purpose. I don't know how this happened. She 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:39.120 has become obsessed with skeletons, and so one of her 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.200 favorite activities over the past I don't know, probably two 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:47.039 or three weeks now, has been demanding that that my 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.080 wife and I draw skeletons for her and extend, you know, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.080 any friends or family visiting the house. Also, they are 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.000 supposed to draw skeletons. So we have big pieces of 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.640 cardboard on the back porch and she'll she'll like lead 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:01.840 you out under the porch and say draw it, sketon, 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.360 Draw it, sketon, And so we do, and then she 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.760 wants another one, and another one and another one, and 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.400 the demand for skeletons is unlimited. She will keep asking 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.840 you to draw them until you just say no, I 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.959 am done, no more skeletons. And then she also likes 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.720 to name them. The other day, I think I drew 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.080 four of them and they were named teeth, Teeth, Big teeth, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.320 and teeth and so somehow I don't know if it's 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.079 genetic or whatever, but she has got Halloween on the brain. 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.560 Oh that's awesome. Yeah, you guys got to bust out 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.119 some skeleton based media here. 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:41.960 Yeah. I don't know if there are any child friendly 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.240 skeleton movies now. 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.120 I haven't watched it in a while, so I can't 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.919 speak to anything that might be inappropriate in it, because 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:52.359 this is the case when you get into some of 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.840 these older cartoons. But the nineteen twenty nine Skeleton Dance 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.680 Silly Symphony from Walt Disney Dancing Skeletons, that is a 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.320 lot of fun and pretty tame unless there's something that 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.480 I am not remembering. At the top of my head. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.440 I think it's on Disney Plus, so maybe that's a 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.520 good sign that maybe it's and there's nothing objectionable in it, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:14.080 but I'm not. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.320 Sure technically, I don't even know if she knows that 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.000 skeletons are supposed to be scary. Maybe just no one 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.720 has communicated to her that this is frightening material. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:24.919 Does she know that there's one inside each of us? 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.680 We've talked about this. I don't know if the fact 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.000 has really sunk in, But Yeah, we've told her that 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.640 she has a skeleton, and we all have skeletons. They're 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:33.520 all under the skin. 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:35.160 Such an exciting time. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.800 Oh but sorry to divert us along the Baby Looked 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:44.120 at Me track. Today on Weird House Cinema, we are 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.000 going to be talking about the nineteen seventy two train 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:54.920 horror thriller Horror Express during Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Sylvia Tortosa, 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.760 and Telly Savalis. Now, you might automatically think, based on 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.720 the cast list, especially the first two names, that this 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.800 is a Hammer Film production, but actually it is not. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.240 I have no proof of this, but I would suspect 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.520 the filmmakers were consciously trying to get some Hammer special 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.599 sauce on their product by casting both Lee and Cushing. 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.719 That's your classic, you know, Dracula movie or Mummy movie, 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.160 whatever it is. The Hammer Film's pairing. Usually Christopher Lee 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.359 is Dracula, Peter Cushing is Van Helsing. Here they play 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:33.960 with the formula a little formula a little bit. Neither 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:35.800 one of them is the villain of the film, but 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:37.680 you do get both, that's right. 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.880 Yeah, Yeah, this was actually a British Spanish co production 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.400 on the British side of things, we have Benmark Productions. 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.479 They would go on to make or they made Psychomania, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.760 which came out this following year. Wonderful film that we've 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.159 discussed in the show before. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.200 I think about Psychomania all the time. That was one 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.880 of our supernatural biker movies. It is the one where 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.200 a British biker gang does witchcraft and realizes they can 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.359 come back from the dead. I think, what's the catch. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.599 They just have to really believe that it'll work or something, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.680 and so they get to come back from the dead 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.880 and be undead biker revenants and ride around like knocking 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.120 things over in grocery stores and terrorizing motorists. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.480 Yeah, it's a wonderful film with a nice grim sense 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.360 of humor at the heart of everything. So yeah, Benmar 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.920 Productions on the British side. And then on the Spanish 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.200 side of things, we have Granada Films, which I'm not 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:38.920 certain on this, but as best I can tell, this 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.760 is a separate entity from Granada Television, which was a 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.400 British company named after a city in Spain that the 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.720 founder had just visited on holiday. It was like Granada, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.480 That's that's what I should name my television production company 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.960 that'll go on to make Trelock Comes TV and so forth. 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:58.680 This would be a separate Granada as far as I 0:05:58.760 --> 0:05:59.320 understand it. 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.000 Yeah, and also separate from the Hello Muta, Hello Fata. 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.479 Oh yes, of course. So Horror Express is a film 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.120 we've been looking to do for a while and we 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.520 just kind of wanted to line it up with core 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:14.320 episodes of stuff to blow your mind that had to 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.279 do with trains, so it finally worked. But this movie 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.159 is a lot of things. It is a splendid looking 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.120 period horror film and the hammer tradition set in Imperial Russia. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.719 It's a monster movie. It's a murder on a train story. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.880 It's also a science fiction tale with some of the 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.080 loosest and sloppiest sigh ever to back up some figh 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.919 but it also manages to stir the viewers' thoughts and imagination, 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.120 even as it at times insults your understanding of science. 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.840 It's a film built around the classically trained performances of 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.000 Cushing and Lee, but it's also a showcase for native 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:55.080 Spanish talent other international talent, and I guess the brasher 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.520 acting style of America's Telly Savalis that's right. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.320 I'm excited to talk about his role. 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.560 So again, there's a lot of things, but it is delightful, unique, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.920 and I think often highly effective as well. Like it 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.240 does feel a little sloppy and loose in places and 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.120 can be a little confusing in places also, but I 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.160 think largely succeeds, and that's why it's developed a cult 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:20.440 following over the decades. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.400 It is known as ludicrous, but also I think it's 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:29.800 super entertaining. The twists just keep coming, and they're very 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.720 i don't know, to my mind, at least very fun twists. 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.960 It also, like you're saying, it has this excellent cast 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:39.760 of unusual characters, I will say a limitation is the 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.640 first time I saw it, my attention was slightly divided 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:48.120 on first viewing, and I ended up mixing up several 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.040 of the characters in my head and getting extremely confused 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.640 as to who was who. I think I was mixing 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.480 up Inspector Mirov and the engineer who knows about science 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.760 and rockets and gravity, and then I was also mixing 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:06.600 up Sylvia Tortosa and Helga Line possibly some other characters 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.800 as well. Also. I showed this movie to some good 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.560 friends last night, and I could tell it a couple 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.040 of parts. I think they were confused because they had 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.000 mixed up a couple of characters. Also, so warning it 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.200 is one of those sometimes this happens, especially with older movies. 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.680 But do not let that discourage you. Horror Express is 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.800 just wonderful. Even if you get a few of the 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.760 characters mixed up, it's gonna be okay. Also, despite the 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.559 problems it creates with remembering all the different identities, the 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.199 large cast of characters is useful for the plot because 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.199 the monster really runs through them at a quite efficient pace. Yeah. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.360 A couple of other acting notes about this. I was 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.960 thinking about this movie made me think about how there 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:55.040 are really two different types of Christopher Lee Rolls. So 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.720 Christopher Lee, I think you could argue, is the main 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.040 protagonist of this film, though I don't know. It's more 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.600 of an ensemble cast. I would say, but christaph Lee 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.319 is like the person who speaks in the opening narration, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.400 so we're with him before anyone else. And so the 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.920 two different types of Christopher Lee Rolls are the jolly, 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.000 ironic christpher Lee and the severe Christopher Lee. And in 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.680 this movie we do get the severe christ FH. Lee. 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.960 I would say the jolly Christopher Lee prototype in my 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.200 mind is the Lord Sumerle performance in The wicker Man. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.520 And they are two very different kinds of presences. And 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.640 so maybe we can talk later on about, you know, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.120 what the difference in feeling is and why you deploy 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.040 each one. But I thought that was kind of interesting 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.920 because he's also with Peter Cushing in this film, and 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:48.640 Peter Cushing kind of gets to be the more jolly 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.760 or ironic version of Christopher Lee here. Peter Cushing usually, 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.280 I don't know, he plays a slightly cheekier, jollier, more 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.600 enthusiastic stick character than Peter Cushing often does. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.960 Yeah, I mean Peter Cushing And what I saw an 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.079 extra with the director of this film pointed out that 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.920 Peter Cushion could often play a warmer character. Now at 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.479 the same time, Peter Cushon could also play evil characters 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.000 and and could play you know, ridiculous and silly characters. 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.199 He was a highly skilled and professional actor. But yeah, 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.960 Christopher Lee, there's the jolly and there's the stern. Though 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.600 it is clear which one of these two Christopher Leees 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.120 you know, cash the pay checks. Yeah, it's the stern. 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.760 Christopher Lee that most people wanted to cast. And so 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.440 there's even a spectrum there where you have like the 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.160 stern hero side of things, like the lead character and 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.160 the Devil Rides Out, Yes, which. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.000 Was zimon, I'd rather see you dead than practicing black magic. 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.240 Yeah, a character that is at once the hero and 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.120 also so stern as to be thoroughly. 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.880 Unlikable, constantly sending other characters to bed. Yeah. 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.800 And in this film, you know, we have a stern 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.080 Christopher Lee that also has a few wrinkles to the 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.199 character that I think make it a little more interesting 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.120 than that. And then of course there's a whole other 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.920 realm of stern villain Christopher Lee, where you have the 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.880 likes of Dracula and Sorrowman. So yeah, this is this 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.080 is I think one of the more nuanced and human 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.800 Christopher Lee performances we've discussed on the show before. 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.920 Yes, this severe Christopher Lee is very different than the 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.440 one in The Devil Rides Out. The one in The 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.439 Devil Rides Out. This is a good point you make. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.520 And the Devil Rides Out, he is moralistic and paternalistic, 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.520 and that's not how he is here. Instead, he is 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.600 a very cold and amorl and intellectual until he sort 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.720 of has to have a has to have a heroic 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:46.600 moment at the end. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.400 Yeah, and is also eventually self aware a little bit. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:52.040 Yeah. 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.480 Like there's a part where a character asks him if 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.000 he doesn't care about the people that have died so far, 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.360 at which at that point was like a thief and 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.480 a man that worked in the baggage car. And he's like, no, 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.840 I don't care, but I should. Like, it's an interesting 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.679 wrinkle to the character that, like, he realizes that he's 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.839 cold and insensitive and he should strive to be better. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.360 I would be a better man if I did care. Yeah. 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.760 But also on the acting front, I think this movie 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:25.000 is interesting because it is part of a category of 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:30.080 films that you might call the third act takeover films, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.640 in films in which a brand new character shows up 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.200 in the final third of the movie and completely seizes 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.320 command of the screen. I don't know if you would 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.480 agree with me, but that's how I feel. That's what 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.400 I feel Telly Savalis does in this movie. Once Telly 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.239 Savalis shows up, the movie just becomes the Telly Savalis 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.880 Show until he is until he is dispatched by the monster. 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:53.840 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:54.280 I agree. 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.840 It's interesting too that he was clearly prominently featured in 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.080 the promotional material for this movie, but he doesn't show 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.480 up for an hour, and even then it's like he's 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.360 not really he's not a major character. He plays an 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:12.120 important role and when he is on screen thoroughly captivating. 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.680 But yeah, definitely a third act takeover. I like that terminology. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.199 Listeners right in with other examples of this. I want 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:20.160 to start making a list. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.439 Yeah, I mean, I guess one of the chief examples 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:28.120 would be Kurts and Apocalypse Now another charismatic bald man. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.680 So I don't know how many third act takeovers are 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.600 by charismatic bald men. I would be interested to know. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.560 Maybe it's just these two listeners. Let us know, all right, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.199 what's the elevator pitch here? Joe? 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.240 Well, So, the official tagline on the poster is I 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.840 think one of the worst I've ever heard. It says, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.120 your non stop ride to hell boards at eight pm? 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:54.760 Can it be stopped? 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:56.880 I don't know. 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.840 Is it NonStop or isn't it? I think that could. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.520 I could stand a bit of work shopping. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.320 But I do like that it gets into some of 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.560 the ideas. We discussed about train horror fiction on the 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.400 core episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind this week. 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.240 The idea that the train cannot be stopped, that the 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.360 train is a journey of fate. Yes, and perhaps that 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.560 fate is very much in question. What will happen to 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:22.200 us at the end of this line? 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.400 Mm, yeah, that's a good point. But what's our weird 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.920 house cinema elevator pitch? I'm gonna say, climb aboard a 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.840 human being, disembark with butt cheek brain. 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:36.640 I feel like you're gonna have to go ahead and 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.960 explain butt cheek brain. So people, No, you're not just 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:40.840 being inn here. 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.000 No, just wait, wait, the listeners will wait. We'll talk 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.120 about it in the plot section. 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.280 All right, it is related to the plot. It is 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.720 related to the plot. All right. Let's go ahead and 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.440 listen to just a little bit of the trailer audio 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.440 from this picture because it has some fun narration. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:04.360 Million years in these subterranean caves, a creature of superhuman 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:10.560 evil was entombed in a wall of ice, waiting to 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:20.760 be free, waiting to live again. Travel with us on 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:26.119 a journey into a world where nightmare becomes reality. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.080 Are you telling me that an ape that lived two 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.160 million years ago got out to that rate, killed the 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.440 baggage man and put him in there. Yes, I am, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:45.360 it's alive. 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:46.120 It must be. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:52.280 Travel with us if you dare on the Horror Express. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.480 All right, If you would like to go watch Horror 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.760 Express before proceeding with the rest of this episode, we 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.360 encourage it. Go watch it or rewatch it. It is 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.760 widely available. I watched it on the excellent Severin Blu ray, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:16.440 rented from Atlanta's own videodrome. Here. There also seems to 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.480 be an excellent Aero Films Blu ray with many of 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.320 the same special features. I'm not sure which one is 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.640 the most recent release and which one's more easily accessible 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.280 if you're ordering this online, But as usual, we just 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.480 urge you to watch it in the best quality you 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.640 can find, be that physical or digital, because it's actually 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.680 a great looking film, and I think it long circulated 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.560 in subpar quality, so yeah, get as good of a 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:42.480 cut as you can find. 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.000 There. I think is a version streaming on Amazon Prime 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.720 that does not look very good, so I don't know 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.880 if there are multiple versions on there. Maybe there's a 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.040 better looking one than the one I initially watched, but 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.120 at least one of them on there is not the best, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.520 so yeah, seek it out in the good quality. Also, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.200 you know, we were talking talking about how the cast 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.520 list seems to be trying to call to mind Hammer films, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.399 it also looks like a Hammer film. And did you 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:13.320 notice that the use of the technicolor, the sets, the photography, 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:18.240 the costumes, it's all. It has an extremely Hammer reminiscent 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:19.159 visual style. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.119 Yeah. Absolutely, I think they do a great job of 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:27.160 creating a like a period look that you completely buy, 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:38.320 even as the film delves increasingly into speculative and wild territory. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.040 All right, let's talk about the people involved here, Beginning 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.080 with the director. It's Eugenio Martin, who lived nineteen twenty 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.200 five through twenty twenty three, Spanish director, probably best known 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.880 internationally anyway for this film and a handful of other 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:01.280 horror pictures, nineteen sixty two's Hypnosi, nineteen seventy one's The 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.919 Fourth Victim starring Carol Baker, nineteen seventy three is a 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.600 Candle for the Devil starring Judy Gleeson, nineteen eighty's The 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.080 House and the Outskirts, and nineteen eighty two's Return of 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.080 the Poltergeist, which features one of the best bits of 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:16.920 terrible VHS box art ever. 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.920 Is that the one that looks like a like a 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.280 werewolf aerobic exercise tape. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.399 Yeah, like it's gripping a bowling ball or something. I 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.520 don't know, but it looks pretty wild. He also directed 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.560 the nineteen sixty six western The Ugly Ones and the 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.480 nineteen seventy two film Pancho Villa starring Telly Savas, and 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.800 the film Pancho Villa is actually a key to understanding 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.600 this film. So that was an Italian Spanish spaghetti western 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.760 featuring several connections to this film, but most notably the 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:54.480 train itself, which the producers had purchased for the production 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.960 of Pancho Villa, and in order to maximize their investment, 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.800 they said, well, what else can we do with this train? 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.520 Let's do another train movie. Somebody get me another script, 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.800 and this eventually led to the creation of the script 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:13.359 for a Horror Express, reusing the same train. So you know, set, 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.359 slash location, slash train and presumably the really I thought 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:23.080 excellent train model. So any of these external, moving wide 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.880 shots of the train in this movie are model shots. 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.520 Oh wow, I didn't realize that I thought some of 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:29.160 them were real. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.919 Yeah, same here. It wasn't until I went into the 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.000 extras on the disc and there's an interview with the 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.359 director here with Martin, and he's like, oh, yeah, we 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.040 had a lot of fun with this train, Like say, 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.560 Peter Cushion and Christopher Lee were there with me and 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.280 we would just run this train around. But it's like 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.040 a large scale model, so it doesn't look as small, 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:49.800 and they did, I think, a great job with the 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.680 landscapes for it, so excellent model train, Like you don't 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.800 even think about it being a model train until like 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:57.959 one key scene towards the end of the picture. 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.000 We were talking in our episode about the Green Slime 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.640 about how I love miniature models, even when they're bad. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.840 But these are good. These are like really realistic, solid, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.080 excellent looking crossing the Siberian landscape. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.480 All right, Moving on to the writers, we have Arnaul Dussau, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:19.040 who lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety American playwright and 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.280 B movie screenwriter. The son of noted Silent era screenwriter 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:30.439 and director Leon du Sou and actress O'tala Nesmith. Arnault 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.800 here wrote some serious plays. He wrote nineteen forty One's 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.440 Lady Scarface, as well as a handful of other projects, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:38.760 but his career seems to have been impacted by the 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.960 Hollywood Blacklist in nineteen fifty. He was also a writer 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.399 on nineteen seventy three Psychomania. Likewise, we should mention that 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.480 this film, as with Pancho Villa, was produced by American 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.000 writer producer Bernard Gordon, who was also forced to work 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.200 in exile, mostly in Spain, due to the Hollywood Blacklist. 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.680 His productions include Flesh and Fury from fifty two, Earth 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.960 Versus the Flying Saucers from fifty six, fifty five, Days 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.119 at Pee King from sixty three, and The Day of 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.920 the Triffids nineteen sixty three. On some films he ended 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.520 up working like uncredited due to his blacklisted status. 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:18.120 Mmmm oh but wait, so with Dusseau here, it's not 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.760 just the same production company on the British side as Psychomania, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:23.560 but literally one of the same writers. 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.160 Yeah, yeah, okay, two very different films. Like they don't 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.280 feel like spiritual siblings, but in a sense they are. 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.080 I guess can you imagine if Christopher Lee had been 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.439 in Psychomania? How good it would be? 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.120 Oh? Man, Yeah, yeah, I mean, there was a role 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.040 for him there, but yeah, it would have been a yeah, 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.040 it would have been a different trajectory for that picture. 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:45.080 I think, you know, if you get a name like 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.600 Lee in there. Let's see, there's another writer credit, and 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.160 that's Julian Zimmitt, who lived nineteen nineteen through twenty seventeen, 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:55.920 American born writer whose other screenwriting credits include Pancho Villa 0:21:55.960 --> 0:22:00.439 and Psychomania Wow. Now getting into the cast, we have 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.280 a number of repeat performers for Weird House, So as 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:05.280 usual for names like this, we're not going to go 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:07.960 add deep into their filmographies. We're just going to maybe 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.160 try and put them in the context of this production. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.680 Starting at the top top build, we have of course 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:18.840 Christopher Lee playing Professor Sir Alexander Saxton. Lee lived nineteen 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:23.119 twenty two through twenty fifteen, British horror legend. Here cast 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:27.600 as as we said, essentially the good guy scientist. He's 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:31.320 you know, but it's also again it's interesting because he's 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.480 a bit cold, but he's he acknowledges that he's a 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.720 bit too cold and unfeeling. He's also the guy who 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.560